Man-Made Fabrics Have State Lawmakers Vying for Warning Tags
- Retailers bristle as New York, California mull microfiber laws
- Not clear if warning that synthetics shed would change demand
Photographer: Brent Lewin/Bloomberg
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Your polyester shirt may soon come with a warning label.
Lawmakers in California and New York have proposed state bills this year to raise awareness of a problem few consumers may have heard of -- synthetic fabrics shedding microfibers into the water system. Reminiscent of the plastic microbeads that were banned from cosmetics, garments made with polymer-based cloth can release as many as 1,900 microfibers per wash that eventually end up in waterways, one study shows.